Legal Research In International and Comparative Law ...



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Syllabus: Legal Research and Communications Theory in International and Foreign Law by Marylin J Raisch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Aim of this course:

Participants will explore the story of international and comparative law through the search for the relevant text. Issues relating to the role of information and theories of scholarly communication will be presented alongside practical instruction in how to find and evaluate sources, whether found in printed books or in electronic databases or the free internet via Google, Wikipedia, or other search engines and catalogues.

Intended Outcomes:

At a time of globalization in the practice of law and business, in urgent human rights situations, and with new relevance for the laws of war and humanitarian intervention, law students should feel confident in their information-seeking strategies so that locating international or even foreign-language texts is an exciting quest and not always an experience that is frustrating in its execution or superficial in its results. Management of information flow may become easier, as each query is given a context and a logical starting point for research.

Spring 2011

Syllabus and Schedule of Assignments

Note: Classes meet on the dates listed in this syllabus, starting January 24, 2011. Each class will begin at 3:30 p.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. with a break at approximately 4:20 p.m.

The course web page password is grotius. There is a Westlaw TWEN site with the same password. All classes will meet in Hotung 5013 except for those which may be pre-announced (at least one week in advance) to meet in the International Computer Learning Center in the John Wolff International & Comparative Law Library, Room 4006 (hereinafter referred to as ICLC, Wolff Library).

Recommended Texts: not required for purchase, but readings may be assigned to assist in practice problems or to clarify issues raised in class discussion:

Williams, John B. and The George Washington University Journal of International Law and Economics, Guide to International Legal Research, LexisNexis, 2009-. Electronic book available though LexisNexis database. You must have your Lexis password. Go to the library permalink at . Hereinafter referred to as Guide.

Glenn, H. Patrick. Legal traditions of the world: sustainable diversity in law. 3rd ed. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Hereinafter referred to as Legal Traditions. K559 .G545 2010 Course Reserves

All other readings will be posted and made available electronically via the course web page, or copied and distributed the week prior to the class for which it is assigned.

Suggested additional texts for reference:

Berring, Robert C. and Marci B. Hoffman. International legal research in a nutshell.

St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2008. READ ROOM RESERVE INTL RES KZ1234 .H64 2008

Buergenthal, Thomas and Sean D. Murphy, Public international law in a nutshell.

3rd ed. St. Paul, MN : West Group, 2002. Library copies at INTL & INTL REF &

READ ROOM RESERVE KZ3110.B84 A3 2007. Hereinafter referred to as Nutshell.

Noyes, John E., Laura A. Dickinson and Mark W. Janis, eds. International Law Stories. Foundation Press; [Eagan, MN]: Thomson/West, 2007. KZ3410 .I68 2007 Course Reserves

Zweigert, Konrad and Hein Kötz (translated from the German by Tony Weir), Introduction to comparative law. 3rd rev. ed. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998. Library copy at INTL K583 .Z813 1998. Hereinafter referred to as Zweigert. Course Reserves

Blogging:

Opinio Juris,

International Law Profs Blog,

Comparative Law Blog,

Jurist (USA),

Berkman Center for Internet Law and Society at Harvard and linked blogs,

Other useful blogs in international and comparative law will be listed and posted on courseware.

Evaluation:

Grading will be based on the following assignments:

1. (20%) Five out of Six short quizzes (lowest grade dropped; OR you can use absence or skip a quiz if you inform the instructor ahead of time or within 24 hours of the missed class; in that case all 5 quiz grades count), and

(80%) an annotated, substantive web guide, hypertextual bibliographic essay, or concept-and-source map, on a sub-topic of the course, to be approved by the instructor (can be done in HTML or just mocked-up on paper; topic and outline due in class March 28, 2011; completed project due no later than

• for Graduating students and LLMs: Monday, May 2nd , 2011 by 5:00 p.m;

• all others (non-graduating students) Tuesday, May 17th, 2011. Papers are to be submitted to the Office of the Registrar and not directly to me. I will not permit a thirty or sixty day extension.

2. Class participation will raise your grade by 5 percentage points. Failure to turn in a quiz without prior indication of intention (skip) results in zero for that quiz. Failure to attend seven or more classes will result in subtraction of 5 percentage points from your overall grade.

Class I, January 24, 2011: Introduction and Overview of Research Contexts and Strategies in the Story of International Law

• What are the sources of International Law?

• What is Foreign Law?

In-class exercises and illustrations (not graded).

The story of modern international law begins with a text, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 ending the Thirty Years’ War, a devastating European conflict in which nation states struggled to emerge from regional hegemonies based on religious ideology.

Research Mission: Your law office and a nearby university law school library and their web pages together form your intellectual headquarters, and during this course you will create your desktop (or other drive) briefcase or toolkit. Your first mission is to find a copy of the Peace of Westphalia.

The story of international law after the Second World War and in the United States is still based on texts and history, not merely cases and statutes. Justice Gray in The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. 677, 20 S.Ct. 290 (1900) opened the American century in international law with an extraordinary survey of classic writers in international law.

Research Mission: If you turn to this list in the opinion at pages 700-708 in US, or 299ff in S.Ct., and you were asked to test his conclusions by finding the texts, how would you go about locating them?

The sources of international law differ from those encountered in the first year of law school but may have characteristics in common with constitutional law sources and the texts of legislation and of domestic governmental entities, politics, and policies. These were codified in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.

Research Mission: Find an officially promulgated text of the ICJ Statute.

Class II, January, 31, 2011: Treaty Research and U.S. Practice in International Law

• Early treaties and civil law origins

• Research by party, subject, and sponsoring organization

• History of treaty publication (for locating older treaties)

• Travaux préparatoires (“legislative history” of treaties)

Assigned reading and task for Class 2:

Before class:

• Introduction by Prof. Christopher J. Borgen, “Of Maps, Stories, and Tapestries: Researching International and Domestic Law in the Age of Globalization,”(Chapter One) of Guide, sections 1.01 through section 1.05. The Peutinger Map to which he alludes is at

• Treaties and Other International Agreements: The Role of the United States Senate: A Study, prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, S. Print 106-71, (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001):

Pages 1-26; 43-95; 117-208; and scan, become familiar with 334-413. (See access and format note below. Pages refer to the pages of the scanned document and not the pages in the PDF viewer, which count all the introductory and contents pages).

The document is linked electronically and can be read from home, in PDF Adobe format, at (this is a free government site) or from the Georgetown Law Library home page at under Research Guides, International and Foreign, Treaty Research, and follow the link above at the first footnote. Please read through the guide as well.

• Visit the following databases under “Research databases” listed alphabetically by title in the List of Databases under the Quick Links at the library home page, which is where we house the link you can use for now right here:

o United Nations Treaty Database;

o USTREATIES (Westlaw);

o TIARA database, Oxford University Press Online;

o Hein Online, Treaty and Agreements Library

o Lexis Nexis Congressional

• And free sites (not in this subscribed database list), THOMAS, , the U.S. Senate, treaties, and the Federal Digital System (FDSys),

• Finally, work through the Treaty Research tutorial at and kept under Research Tutorials, Research Help at

Class III, February 7, 2011: General international law sources and applications

• Multilateral and bilateral treaty sources, U.S. not necessarily a party

• Other sources of international law (general principles, custom, commentaries, doctrine)

• More on travaux préparatoires of treaties and evidence of state practice in digests and yearbooks.

Before class:

Visit the following databases under “Research databases” listed alphabetically by title in the Alphabetical List of Databases under the Quick Links at the library home page, which is where we house the link you can use for now right here:

• HeinOnline

o Foreign & International Law Resources Database for digests and yearbooks

o Foreign Relations of the United States

o Legal Classics – look for the older classic treatises by author such as Grotius, van Bynkershoek, von Pufendorf (note: more recent classics are listed at our International Law Treatise Finder,

• Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Law Online

• Recueil des Cours en ligne (Collected Courses Online - Hague Academy)

And the following free web sites:

• United Nations Treaty Collection,

• Yearbook of the United Nations,

• UN Audiovisual Library of International Law,

• Official Document System of the United Nations (ODS) (1992 onwards), via the main United Nations site,

Suggested reading for Class 3:

Guide, ch.Two, section 2.01 (skip the synopsis to chapter 2).

Ralph F. Gaebler, "Conducting Research in Customary International Law," Contemporary Practice of Public International Law (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1997) INTL REF KZ 1234.C66 1997

M. Hoffman, “United States” in Gaebler, R. and M. Smolka-Day, Sources of State Practice in International Law (Ardsley, N.Y.: Transnational Publishers, Inc., 2001). INTL REF KZ64 .S67 2001

Class IV, February 14, 2011: International jurisprudence and International Criminal Law

Quiz 1 administered in class, based on sources covered through class II.

• Tribunals: ICJ, ICTY, ICTR, ICC, LOS

• Arbitral bodies

• Role of national courts

Assigned reading for Class 4:

Visit the following free web site databases:

• Global Courts,

• World Legal Information Institute, scrolling down on the left to “countries” and then pick any you like, look for case law;

• Project on International Courts and Tribunals,

• American Society of International Law (ASIL) i-Lex Legal Research System for International Law in U.S. Courts,

• paid database International Law in Domestic Courts, [here this means not U.S. courts but national courts of several jurisdictions] under “Research Databases” under the Quick Links at the library home page, )

Suggested Reading for Class 4:

Part II, “International Law: The Domestic Impact” (Chapters 5 through 8) of Noyes, John E., Laura A. Dickinson and Mark W. Janis, eds. International Law Stories. Foundation Press; [Eagan, MN]: Thomson/West, 2007, pages 151-260. Read not so much for doctrinal substance as for the contributions of each of four leading cases discussed and the sources mentioned as crucial (e.g., treatise writers cited by Justice Gray that we considered in Class 1 - how would you find the old Bricker Amendment raised in opposition to the implications of Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416 (1920) ?).

A future take-home quiz will be based on finding sources cited in one or more of the following:

1. Medellin v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 128 S.Ct. 1346 (2008),

2. Avena case, (Mexico v. USA) International Court of Justice, March 31, 2004.

3. House of Lords, Regina v. Bartle and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Other (Appellants), Ex Parte Pinochet (Respondent)(On Appeal from a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division); Regina v. Evans and Another and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others (Appellants), Ex Parte Pinochet (Respondent) (On Appeal from a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division) (No. 3), Judgment of 24 March 1999 at the following site: Ex Parte Pinochet (HL 2)]- read only through the first opinion of Lord Browne-Wilkinson.

PRESIDENTS’ DAY & FACULTY RETREAT: NO CLASS ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2011: Monday classes meet on Thursday, February 24, 2011

Class V, THURSDAY February 24, 2011: International law and the United Nations and Other Intergovernmental and regional organizations; United Nations and European Human Rights as integrated with trade and development. Individual and group rights and documentation.

• Strategies for IGO documentation

• International Law Commission, General Assembly 6th Committee (codification of international law)

• UN documentation system and web site: lab practice

• The UN and human rights; Council of Europe and its human rights research system

• African Union, Asia

• World Bank, OECD

Quiz 2 distributed after class, based on Classes III and IV. Due by 3:00 p.m. Feb. 28, 2011

Assigned reading for Class 5:

Guide, Chapter Two, section 2.02, Multinational Organizations

United Nations research guide,

Visit free web sites:

• The United Nations Human Rights Treaties,

• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,

• Hurisearch Human Rights Search Engine, by Huridocs, linking to the search engine, ;

• European Court of Human Rights HUDOC database for its cases,

Suggested Reading:

Part I, “Nuremberg and Its Progeny” (Chapters 1 through 4) of Noyes, John E., Laura A. Dickinson and Mark W. Janis, eds. International Law Stories. Foundation Press; [Eagan, MN]: Thomson/West, 2007, pages 13-147. Read not so much for doctrinal substance as for the contributions of each of four leading cases discussed.

Jeanne Rehberg, "United Nations: Lawmaking Activities and Documentation," Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research (Littleton, CO: Rothman, 1998), 151-185. K85 .A27 1998

Class VI-A, February 28, 2011 The European Union

• Treaties and commentary

• Legislation and documentation

• Databases: Eur-Lex on web and via Lexis, Westlaw

Assigned reading for Class 6:

Visit and explore Europa, the official EU web site,

Marylin Raisch, European Union, ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law,

Note: There will be hand-outs and additional web material posted for this class.

Quiz 3 based on class V, distributed after class. Due at 3 p.m. March 14, 2011.

SPRING BREAK MARCH 6-13, 2011 NO CLASSES MEET

Class VI-B, March 14, 2011 continues the European Union and European as well as international human rights; review sources listed for Class V. Discussion of scholarly communication in international law and international law in the American law school curriculum (Harvard film, if time permits).

Class VII, March 21, 2011: IGOs and NGOs as new international actors: International Relations and Empirical or Interdisciplinary Research; Intrastate and Interstate Conflicts: the Law of War, Terrorism, Piracy, the Use of Force, and Humanitarian Intervention

Quiz 4 distributed in class, based on classes VIA and VIB (European Union and human rights), due March 28, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Assigned reading for Class VII:

Suggested reading:

Part III, “International Law: Interstate Conflicts” (Chapters 9 through 13) of Noyes, John E., Laura A. Dickinson and Mark W. Janis, eds. International Law Stories. Foundation Press; [Eagan, MN]: Thomson/West, 2007, pages 263-434. Read not so much for doctrinal substance as for the contributions of each of four leading cases discussed.

Class VIII, March 28, 2011 Topical research in Public Law (other than criminal law)

• Labor

• Health

• Environmental regimes

• World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA

• OAS and Latin American trade groups

Due in class: Outline for web-based bibliographic essay, research guide, or concept-and-source map.

Assigned reading for Class 8:

Visit the following web sites: International Labour Organization, ; World Health Organization, Locate at each site the section for laws and legislation and/or substantive electronic documents.

Marylin Raisch, “United Nations Documentation on World Trade,” American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Workshop, Shopping in the Global marketplace: Information Sources for International Trade, Suffolk University Law School, July 9, 2004 (posted on the course web page).

Jean M. Wenger, “International Economic Law,” ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law, and “International Commercial Arbitration” at

Research guide for International Institute of Economic Law,

Class IX, April 4, 2011: Topical Research in International Commercial Law, Comparative Tax Law, and in Private International Law /International Private Law

• International and comparative taxation; quick re-visit to copyright conventions and laws (World Intellectual Property Organization)

• Electronic Library on International Commercial Law and the CISG at Pace Law School, ; UNILEX database on CISG and UNIDROIT principles,

• Family law, Adoption, child custody, comparative law of inheritance

Assigned reading for class 9:

Jonathan Franklin, “International Intellectual Property Law,” ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law,

University of Minnesota Law Library, “Researching International Taxation,”

Assigned reading for class 12:

Please read Marylin Raisch, Transnational and Comparative Family Law: Harmonization and Implementation

Visit U.S. State Department Private International Law database,

Hague Conference site,

Andrew Grossman, “Birthright citizenship as nationality of convenience,”

To be published in the Proceedings of the Third Conference on Nationality,

(Most footnotes are hot-linked to available online sources or to archived copies)

Copyright © 2004 by Andrew Grossman,

This is an excellent example of scholarly integration of print and electronic sources outside of the database world of Lexis and Westlaw.

Quiz 5 distributed after class, covering classes 7 and 8: labor, health, environmental regimes, and the World Trade Organization, due April 11, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Class X, April 11, 2011: Comparative law I (private law): researching laws in jurisdictions of other legal systems, Part I -

• Civil law revisited in detail; codes and commentaries

• Primary and secondary research; religious law

Assigned reading for Class 10:

Zweigert, Part I through Chapter 5.

Please visit

• “Foreign collections by jurisdiction (NYU)," ;

• HeinOnline, World Constitutions Illustrated via subscription database page or the library catalogue;

• International Constitutional Law page, ;

• Human rights/Constitutional Rights (Columbia), ;

• Legifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr ;

• Droit Francophone,

• JuriGLobe World Legal Systems site, University of Ottawa,

[contains some technical inaccuracies, will discuss];

• World Civil Codes (about 20)

• Paid database of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in our alphabetical database list

Suggested reading: John Henry Merryman, David S. Clark, John O. Haley, The Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America, and East Asia (Charlottesville, Va.: Michie Co., 1994). K585 .M468 1994

• France, Germany

• Great Britain

Additional assigned reading for Class 10:

Zweigert, Chapters 6 through 13, 20 and 22.

For France, Germany please review the sources listed under each of those jurisdictions in the database called Foreign Law Guide [electronic resource]: current sources of codes and basic legislation in jurisdictions of the world (Thomas H. Reynolds, Arturo A. Flores) located online under our Research Databases, under the Quick Links at the law library home page (see above).

Read guides for the jurisdictions and systems above located at

• GlobaLex,

• Global Legal Information Network, GLIN,

Review paid subscription databases for Georgetown (supporting Women’s International Law Clinic and Asian Law Institute):

• Ghana Law- Laws, Judgments, and Reports

• Isinolaw database for China (PRC)

• Manupatra (India)

• Oxford Islamic Studies Online

• Uganda Online Library

• Vietnam Laws Online database

“Finding the Law: the Micro-States and Small Jurisdictions of Europe: Andorra, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican State; also Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Northern Cyprus; …Montenegro, Kosovo”

>Marylin Raisch, Religious Legal Systems, A Brief Guide to Research and Its Role in Comparative Law,

>Finding the Law: Islamic Law (Sharia),

Quiz 6 covering classes X and XI distributed after class, due on April 18, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Class XI, April 18, 2011: Comparative Law Part II (public law other than criminal law; legal history): Comparative Constitutional Law review; sources of trans-systemic research

Please prepare for class by going through a new library Foreign Law Tutorial and be prepared to give feedback on how helpful it was regarding 1) content and 2) format.

International Encyclopedia of Laws, series title for collection of databases on comparative private law, (if link has expired, enter that title as catalogue search)

International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, 1972- (run search in catalogue)

Roman law (ancient Rome) as a civil law template.

Class XII, April 25, 2011: Investment and Arbitration law and sources of panel decisions, International Financial Law

Assigned reading for Class 12:

Gloria Miccioli, “International Commercial Arbitration,” ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law,

Please visit these paid databases in the alphabetical list:

• Investment Claims (Oxford)

• Kluwer Arbitration Law Database

• Transnational Dispute Management

Wei Luo, “A Research Guide to International Investment Law,” Washington University School of Law Library,

European University Institute, SSRN, Olin Foundation, IIEL, and Jean Monnet sites, etc. to be covered for working papers.

And if time permits…

• Empirical international statistical research: UNdata, ; LexisNexis Statistical Datasets (subscription); World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index,

▪ Periodical indexes and European-based bibliography projects (RAVE) at Univeristy of Duesseldorf,

▪ Peace Palace Library, The Hague, Netherlands,

▪ Virtual Law Library at University of Saarbrücken, ; Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law bibligoraphy,

▪ Integration of Lexis and Westlaw sources

▪ Bulletins, newsletters, working papers

▪ International civil procedure and cross-border issues; governmental or non-governmental sources. News and current awareness tools; interdisciplinary research; encyclopedias and journal searching.

REMEMBER: Course projects due for graduating students and LLMs: Monday, May 2nd , 2011 by 5:00 p.m; all others (non-graduating students) Tuesday, May 17th, 2011.

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